Anthony the Great

Anthony the Great (* maybe around 251, † 356) was a Christian Egyptian monk, ascetic and hermit. He is also Anthony the Hermit, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Hermit and Anthony Abbot, "Father of Monks" called.

• 4.1 sources
• 4.2 Secondary Literature

The life of Saint Anthony

The Life of Anthony is handed down to us in the Vita Antonii (about 360) of Athanasius ( 300-373 order ), the bishop of Alexandria.

Anthony (now Qiman -al- Arus ) born in Kome in Middle Egypt, the son of wealthy Christian farmers. When he was about twenty years old, his parents died. In the church he heard the biblical saying: " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me "( Matthew 19:21 EU). After he gives away his possessions and his younger sister had given into the custody of a community of consecrated virgins, he retired into solitude, first in a hut near his village, then in an ancient Egyptian grave chamber, and later in an abandoned castle at the edge of the desert, until he set up within sight of the Gulf of Suez to the conclusion his hermitage in the wilderness on the mountain Kolzim, where he died after a long ascetic life. During his long stay desert Antony was repeatedly plagued by tormenting visions. The devil said to have appeared to him in various forms, to dissuade him from his ascetic life. Whether Anthony, as Athanasius says, actually left his hermitage and travel to Alexandria undertook to assist the martyrs or to intervene in the Arian disputes, is not historically proven. Anthony was revered for his vigorous resistance to the temptations imposed upon him as a man of God ( theios accepted ). Many devotees who visited him in the desert in his hermitage, he impressed by miraculous healings and exorcisms.

Written traditions

Which, according to Athanasius supposedly uneducated Anthony are assigned different written traditions:

A total of twenty letters are attributed to Antony. The by Jerome ( 347-420 ) in the 88th chapter of his De viris illustribus, a collection of 135 short biographies, testified seven Coptic letters of Antony in the Greek translation of confreres and monasteries show a philosophically and theologically trained, of Origen's biblical theology influenced Kenner Platonic and Gnostic tradition. They are regarded as genuine, Evagrius Ponticus effect on, John Cassian, Makarios had fully handed over to the Egyptians and Dorotheus of Gaza and are in Georgian. Also the letter About the sincere repentance to Abbot Theodore and his monks seem to be genuine. According to Athanasius, Antony said to have stood with the Emperor Constantine and his sons in the correspondence, but for which there is no evidence otherwise.

The Sermones ad XX are spurious filios Suos.

Even the traditional under his name usually of Antony 's probably more the view of a part of his pupils and admirers again. A central theme of Antony rule is the renunciation of the monk of bodily and worldly desires: "Kill yourself from day itself."

Another font source are the Apophthegmata Patrum, the words of the patriarchs: There are over 38 provides fathers sayings of St. Anthony. The question of the authenticity of this tradition from the 4th or 5th century remains open. Indicative of the monks Antony is his spiritual gift of discernment in the service of virtue and chastity. "Who sits in the desert and the rest cultivates heart is torn three battles: the hearing, seeing, the speeches. He only has to carry on a struggle: against the uncleanness "

Meaning and effect

Church History

Anthony is considered the founder of Christian monasticism. He founded (perhaps around 305, during Diocletian's persecution of Christians ) the first communities of Christian anchorites, more or less loose associations of hermits living separately. In contrast created by the initiative of Pachomius (ca. 292-346 ), Egyptian hermit of a younger to 320-325, the first Christian monasteries where the monks lived together as Koinobiten and worked.

The emergence of Christian monasticism does not fall randomly along with the persecution of Christians 303-311 under Diocletian and his successors, as many persecuted Christians fled into the desert to end the period of persecution, during the so-called Constantinian shift ( 311-313 ) to determine, that they were insulted when they return from their family and their co-religionists as cowards and traitors. " Flee the bishop and the woman ," why was the slogan of these monks. They considered a so-called bloodless martyrdom, which was not suffered to the execution sites of the Roman Empire, but by the destruction of their needs in the solitude of the desert.

A French knight said to have brought in 1070 the relics of St. Anthony from Byzantium to France in the monastery of Saint Antoine ( near Grenoble ). Particles of the relics of St. Anthony can be found among others in Echternach, Cologne ( arm and beard Relic) and Florence. The monks of the monastery Anthony in Egypt, however, are convinced that the remains of the saint are always still there, where it was originally buried.

At an end of the 11th century occurring, that disease Anthony's fire, which was identified later as poisoning by ergot, was sought as a remedy refuge with the relics of St. Anthony. The way based on it Antoniter - order spread in the service of nursing during the Middle Ages throughout Europe. After a heyday in the late Middle Ages, the Order suffered with the early modern period and the rise of the Reformation a decline and went out. The Order had the right to leave the so-called " Anthony pig" for fattening roam freely in the village at public expense. So Anthony the Great was in southern Germany also known as " pig" - or " Fackentoni " in West Germany as " Swinetünnes " or " Ferkes Tünn ". Anthony is the patron saint of farmers and their livestock, but also the swineherd and butchers. Together with the Holy Quirinus, Hubertus Cornelius and he is one of the " four holy marshals " of God.

Art

Iconography

St. Anthony is shown on many paintings, sculptures and icons in, often together with Paul of Thebes. He is shown as a teacher with a scroll or a book and a fighter against the so-called St. Anthony's fire. His iconographic attributes are the tau or cross of St. Anthony on his Habit, a bell, a pig and the T-shaped rod. As a patron against the Anthony's fire is the saint often depicted standing in the fire.

The Temptations of Saint Anthony and their reception in art and literature

The Temptations of St. Anthony are described in the Vita Antonii and other sources. The devil appears to him in his visions in human form, as a black boy or seductive woman to seduce him to the sin of fornication, but also in the form of demonic beasts to torture him physically. The theme of the temptations and torments of St. Anthony is a common motif in Western art. After first fresco representations in the 10th century it came in the book illumination and later in the book printing in the late Middle Ages to a first accumulation of presentation of the subject. Shortly after 1500 were mainly Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516 ) in Lisbon (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga ) and Matthias Grünewald (c. 1475-1528 ) in Colmar ( Musée d' Unterlinden ) formative. In the modern art are the representations of Max Ernst (1891-1976) and Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), both created in 1946 as part of the Bel -Ami competition, particularly emphasized. Even today, leave many young artists, particularly influenced by surrealism, inspired by the life of St. Anthony.

Also in the literature, the temptations of St. Anthony were processed, for example by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822, The Elixirs of the Devil 1815 /16). The best-known literary work is the scenic novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony (La Tentation de Saint Antoine ) by the French writer Gustave Flaubert ( 1821-1880 ), who worked over a long period of his literary work the issue until in 1874 the final version (version définitive ) of the novel appeared, and was translated into many languages.

In music, the work of the German composer Werner Egk (1901-1983) La tentation de Saint Antoine d'après the airs et des vers du 18e siècle for alto, string quartet and string orchestra (1952; ballet 1969) to name a few. Even Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) set to music the temptations of Anthony in his symphony Mathis der Maler (1934 ). In 2003, the American writer and director Robert Wilson (born 1941) brought together with the singer and composer Bernice Johnson Reagon at London's Sadler 's Wells Theatre, the Temptation of St. Anthony as a musical with lyrics by Gustave Flaubert on the stage.

Remembrance

The feast of Saints on 17 January is celebrated in the following churches:

• Roman Catholic Church ( bid Memorial in general Roman calendar )
• Orthodox Church ( in addition also on January 18 )
• Armenian Church
• Coptic Church
• Syrian Orthodox Church
• Evangelical Church in Germany ( Memorial Day in the Protestant calendar name )
• Anglican Communion ( Common Worship in Remembrance )
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( Commemoration in Lutheran Worship )

Others

Another famous saint named Anthony is the medieval Franciscan Anthony of Padua (1195 - 1231), the patron saint of lost objects and forgetful. Many places (eg, San Antonio, Texas, St. Anton in Tirol ), many churches and Anthony - resistant (such as the popular Festa de Sant Antoni ), named after one of those saints. The saints of old encyclopedias perform many other saints of this name (see Saint Anthony ).

As the weather usually is believed to Antoninus: "If at Antoni the air is clear, there's definitely a dry year."